Equality Bill
12:00 pm
John Wadham: We have set out in our briefing the fact that we also support the development of the socio-economic duty. In our analysis of the issues relating to our core mandates—race, women and gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief and age—the key factor in many issues that people face is, unsurprisingly, poverty. Their discriminatory treatment has significant socio-economic consequences. Therefore, it is not too much of a leap, from our perspective, to ask the question whether more needs to be done, not only for any particular group, but for the groups in general, to ensure that they are in a better position and can compete on equal terms with others.
Nor is it a big leap to ask public authorities—particularly the strategic ones—the question whether they are delivering their services in a manner appropriate to everyone in their area, particularly in the context of poorer groups. I think it is a sensible way forward, which the commission supports. The commission’s remit extends beyond what we might call the traditional strands and ask questions about inequality in general. That is why we will promote the provision.
To deal with your second question on how effective the Bill will be, that depends on the extent to which the public authorities understand how it works and the extent to which they can use it effectively. That would be the $64,000 question. As Sarah said, it is a modest development because it says only that they need to consider the issue when they are making decisions about their overall policy. I see no reason why that is not going to benefit the people it is designed to benefit.